Our club is planning a hands-on project in Mt Hagen, PNG from September 2026. Five Rotarians and volunteers will fly up to:
- prepare the plans to build a new public toilet facility for the city of Mt Hagen;
- visit five villages that have high incidence of water-borne diseases to identify how to provide clean drinking water;
- deliver wheelchairs and crutches to adults and school children with disabilites;
- deliver a dental chair that has been donated by a Toowoomba dentist;
- deliver computers and reading books to primary and secondary schools;
- deliver solar lights to six rural boarding schools;
- Have a great deal of fun learning about life in the Western Highlands.
Public Toilet Facility
This projects is a partnership between the Rotary Clubs of Mt Hagen and Toowoomba. Also with the Mt Hagen Provincial Hospital and the Western Highlands Province.
We need to raise $40,000 to pay for the costs of building the city’s first public toilet facility. Mt Hagen Rotary Club has received a District Grant for the 2026-27 year for $4,500. The floor plan above shows a potential design for the building.
We plan to build the new toilet block on land provided by the City Council near the city’s bus interchange. The toilet block will have eight toilets (5 Female, 2 Male & 1 Disability) and two shower rooms (Female & Unisex).
Town water will be connected to the building for the operation of toilets and showers. A water filtration plant will be installed in a secure part of the building, to purify the water for drinking.
On the outside of the new building will be two clean-water, drinking fountains and two clean-water taps, where locals can fill their water bottles.
Waste from the new toilet block will be plumbed into the city’s sewerage system.
Thousands of people pass through the bus interchange each day. They will no longer need to pollute the ground around the facility. This will reduce the runoff of waste into streams and rivers which supply the city’s water supply. It will also reduce the fly-borne diseases transmitted to the close-by fresh food markets.
Clean Water for Rural Villages
The second phase of this project is to bring clean drinking water to the rural villages of the Province. This could involve the construction of:
- a water well in the village, if it has no current close water source;
- a bio-sand filter, to purify drinking water;
- a village toilet block, with a shower;
- a septic sewerage system to process the waste;
- a solar lighting system for the use of the toilet at night.
